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Ligurian pride: focaccia!

Focaccia is one of the most famous street food known and eaten in Genoa

Flour, water, salt and yeast, yetit’snot bread...

The focaccia Genovese is a unique delicacy

The word comes from the Latin “focus,” thatis, baked on live fire. Soft, fluffy, glistening with olive oil, delicious! You can eatit on itsown, with cheese or coldcuts.

Focaccia is not pizza and is about 2000 years older

Focaccia wasborn by chance, as an on-the-go treat, or a “waiting” snack. Indeed, bakershad to waitseveral hours for bread dough to rise beforemakingtheirloaves, so theystartedbaking some of itwhenstillunleavened, placingdirectly in the hot oven or on a burning hot slateslab.

In the Genoese dialect it is called "a fugassa"

In the 16thcentury, itbecame so popularitwasevenconsumedduringreligiousfunctions. Italyproducesseveraltypes of focaccia, but the mostfamous are thosecoming from Liguria: besideitsmosttraditionalvariety, about an inch high, with holes on itssurface and covered in olive oil, popularisalsocheese focaccia, whichapparentlyhas a veryold history, and may date back to the years of the Third Crusade (1189).

Focaccia alla genovese has a distinctive olive oil taste

Thistype of focaccia isthinnerthanitsbasic, traditionalcounterpart and isfilled with a type of freshcheese, giuncata, whichwas - and stillis - onlyavailable in Liguria. This focaccia, typical of the town of Recco, is an IGP (Indicazioine Geografica Protetta) product, and becameknownasfocaccia di Reccoat the beginning of the 20thcentury, whenitwas so popularitwasrumoredeven the Infanta of Spainhad the habit to visit the village to enjoyit.